Below is a copy of the Editorial, and I invite responses either here at the Bar in reply to this posting, or directly by email to me.
We hope you get a lot out of the current edition of FreePint. It's taken a lot of work from a number of contributors, and it's come together again nicely. Please do keep spreading the word to your colleagues about FreePint.
I spoke in the last FreePint about the tremendous energy there is in
the information profession http://www.freepint.com/go/n179 . It's
fabulous to work in an industry where the primary aim is to help other
people locate and use good quality information.
However, a common misconception outside the information industry is
that the profession purely helps people find free information that
they could easily find themselves, given enough time. Most people's
experience of 'information research' is visiting their local library
or searching Google.
The educational element of information work is indeed crucial, as we
help people evaluate resources. We have an article in today's FreePint
about evaluating Web sites -- yes, the title mentions health
information resources, but the twenty-point checklist will help you
evaluate Web sites for any topic.
By definition, however, there can't be an 'information industry' based
solely around free information resources. Something has to be produced
and sold; there has to be a commercial proposition. Paid-for
information content takes many forms, and in today's second article we
look at the latest trends in business information.
At best, therefore, the information content industry is 'cloudy'. Take
FreePint, for example -- it sits on both the 'free' and 'paid-for'
sides of the fence.
On the 'free' side we've now published over a million words in the
FreePint newsletter alone, and emailed over six and a half million
copies of the newsletter. On the 'paid-for' side we're selling reviews
of business information products through VIP, and reports on
information management topics, like the one which is reviewed here
today. Somewhere in the middle of these extremes lies advertising and
sponsorship, and the benefits of cross-promotion of other sites within
the network.
Many information people talk about 'free versus fee information' --
that one side is pitted against the other. I strongly believe that the
most exciting things happen when you mix together *three* elements of
'information' -- free, paid-for and promotion. Everyone benefits when
there's a judicious mix of all of these elements. Ignore any one of
them and the magic is lost.
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